A gaiter of this type is sold commercially by the Berghaus Company and forms a supple boot designed to be put on over the shoe. It comprises an upper portion made of a water-tight fabric extending to a point below the user's knee, its main feature lying in the fact that the upper portion is extended by a lower portion which, in the manner of an outer shoe, encloses the entire shoe upper, including the sole thereof, by means of a plate designed to cover the sole which forms an extension of the circumference of the lower end of the gaiter itself and serves as the aforementioned enclosure means.
Although it probably gives good results, this gaiter has the disadvantage of being relatively complex and costly to manufacture. In addition, the presence of the plate on the boot sole, although incorporating open work, eliminates from the sole a portion of its ground-grabbing areas and makes it difficult to use with a ski boot, by virtue of the presence thereon of special binding means and, in addition, difficult to use with a hiking boot designed to incorporate studs for walking on ice. Furthermore, the size of the boot must be adhered to, thus requiring the stocking of inventory. Finally, and above all, this gaiter is especially difficult to put in place on the boot.
There also exists a gaiter made of a water-tight fabric, in which the circumference of the lower end is fitted with means for enclosing the upper tightly, which are constituted by an elastic strip mounted on the inner edge thereof, so as to envelop elastically the corresponding portion of the upper, connection to the sole being achieved by a cable of adjustable length extending beneath the arch and being clearly easier to put in place.
Nevertheless, this gaiter, which is more easily manufactured than the preceding one, has the disadvantage of a lack of water-tightness at the contact surface between the upper and the lower elastic strip, since, by virtue of the simple presence of this elastic strip, the fabric composing the gaiter forms, at this point, gathers which facilitate the penetration and ascending movement of water and snow between the gaiter and the boot.
Based on this same embodiment, it would be possible to conceive of an extension of the circumference of the lower end of the gaiter toward the front of the boot in order to yield enhanced protection; however, this cannot be considered because, beyond a certain limit, the elasticity itself of the strip will produce a contraction effect because it slides on the front upper part of the upper toward the instep, thereby making forward extension completely useless.
Austrian Patent No. 387 893 describes a gaiter limited to protection of a low-cut shoe or of the lower portion only of the upper of a high-cut boot. As in the first example cited, this gaiter takes the form of an outer boot enclosing virtually all of the boot upper, with the exception of the tip, in order to leave one binding connection free in the case of a cross-country ski boot, and extending at least partially beneath the sole of this boot. In this instance also, the presence of the lower portion of the gaiter covering the sole even partially complicates manufacture and, moreover, forms an area subject to wear.
German Model of Utility No. 94 26 769.4 differs basically from the preceding patent by virtue of the fact that the upper portion of the gaiter extends beyond the upper of the boot to be protected; however, the lower portion thereof extends in the same manner at least partially beneath the sole, accompanied by the same disadvantages as those previously mentioned.